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BY 

V 

Wf ALFRED JONES, A. M., 

Librarian of Columbia College. 

READ BEFORE THE LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
NOVEMBER 5, 1863. 



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^ NEW YORK : 

BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, 

printing-house square, opposite city HALIfc 

1863. 



LONG ISLAND. 



It may seem almost an act of |jresumption to attempt an 
historical sketch, miicli less a detailed aqcount, of Lon^ Island, 
topographical and statistical, within the ordinary limits of a 
lecture, — as a full consideration of any one of the numerous 
topics of this paper would exhaust the time and patience of the 
most complaisant audience. Anything like copiousness of de- 
tail or thoroughness of treatment is, consequently, quite out of 
the question. Our utmost endeavor will he to aim at present- 
ing a very brief, very rapid, and yet tolerably comprehensive, 
sketch of the notabilia, men and things, of Long Island, — a 
portion of the Empire State far too little known, except to na- 
tive Long-Islanders, residents of long-standing, or those who, 
from business connections, social ties, or pleasure excursions, 
have become somewhat acquainted with her varied resources 
and manifold attractions. 

It is, moreover, with no affectation of modesty, that we un- 
dertake this task (a labor of love though it be), when we re- 
flect on our avowed incompetence, compared with certain gen- 
tlemen here present, who, from birth, ampler information, and 
the nature of their researches, are far better fitted to treat this 
subject, and yet whose favorable suffrages we should be most 
anxious to gain. Since no one has, however, thought it ex- 
pedient to present such a mere summary as we propose to give 
— unwilling, perhaps, to be at the pains to condense within 



a sketch, what might be so much more attractively amplijBed 
into a volume — we beg the forbearance, and deprecate in ad- 
vance the criticism, of any student, historical or antiquarian, 
who might complain of the very superficial and discursive 
nature of this essay. 

Though a native New-Yorker, yet, as the descendant of 
Long-Islanders, we take a special pride and interest in the 
Island, and all that relates to it. On this ground, too, we 
seem to feel a certain claim on your kindness, and confess a 
desire to connect our name, again, with the home of our 
fathers. 

The historical importance of Long Island has never been 
overrated. Next to the city of New York, it is the oldest por- 
tion of the State that had been visited and settled by Dutch 
and English. Previous to the Revolution, Long Island con- 
stituted the oldest and most important part of the colony. A 
century ago the population of Long Island (says Prime) was 
more than that of the city of New York, and more than one- 
third that of the province. At the commencement of this 
century. Long Island was still a most important part of the 
State. 

To the student of political history, the antiquary, the 
humorist, the sportsman, the invalid, and the traveler for 
pleasure. Long Island holds out many and various attractions. 

Her history, colonial and revolutionary ; the Indian tribes 
(her original proprietors) ; the settlement of her towns ; their 
quaint nomenclature ; her old churches and houses ; the mano- 
rial grants of the Suffolk and Queens County patentees ; the 
quaint English reminiscences of the east end, and the pictur- 
esque relics of the Dutch, in the western ; the romantic hard- 
ships of the whale fishery, and the bold race of men it nurtures 
— are all topics of interest. 

The celebrated men, too, who first drew breath in this 



favored region, and those who in later life retired here to en- 
joy a calm and happy old age, are worthy of being recorded. 

"We shall attempt, concisely enough, to touch upon all 
these points, — for we can do little more, — and we must again de- 
clare that the present paper is but introductory to the histori- 
cal course that will follow, and is intended to bear the same re- 
lation to it, as a preface to the volume of history. 

On the arrival of the European colonists, thirteen tribes of 
native Indians were found in possession of the Island. At pres- 
ent a mere handful of half-breeds remain (more negro than 
Indian) of the once powerful and predominant Montauks, and 
but a meagre remnant of the Shinnecock tribe, settled on a 
Government reservation at Shinnecock. The only skirmish of 
any consequence between the Indians and the white inhabi- 
tants occurred 1653, at Fort Keck (the seat of the Floyd Jones 
family), the famous Captain John Underbill being the victor. 

The colonial history of Long Island to the period of the 
Revolution is occupied (in its earlier records) with Indian diffi- 
culties ; afterwards with civil protests of the Dutch against 
the Duke of York's government ; with party politics and local 
disputes. On the establishment of the English colonial do- 
minion on Long Island, the Duke's laws (which tradition de- 
clares to have been drawn up by no less a personage than Lord 
Chancellor Clarendon, the great historian) were promulgated 
for the government of the province, and became the established 
code. The Dutch had previously governed the western end for 
nearly half a century. 

During the era of the Revolution — throughout almost the 
entire war — the Island was held by the British. It contained 
many patriotic citizens, however, who secretly gave " material 
aid " to their fellow-countrymen, in nearly its whole extent ; 
and on its soil at least one important action was fought — the 



6 



Battle of Long Island, at Gowanus — ^from which the masterly 
retreat to New York was conducted with such signal success. 

The principal towns on Long Island were settled almost 
contemporaneously by the Dutch and English, at either end of 
the Island, about the middle of the seventeenth century. 
Southold was the first town settled on Long Island — 1640. Me- 
morials of the original colonists are to be found in the very 
few old houses and churches still remaining — antiquarian relics 
of that early period. 

The principal of these (so far as we can learn) are the Cor- 
telyou house at Gowanus — the headquarters of Lord Stirling 
at the Battle of Long Island ; the old stone house at JS'ew 
Utrecht, in which General Woodhull died ; the Bowne house 
at Flushing ; the Young's place at Southold ; the old stone cot- 
tage at Ravenswood; and the Fort Neck mansion, built by 
Judge Thomas Jones, the loyalist, j ust previous to the Revolu- 
tion. 

In Flatbush and in Brooklyn were standing, at the com- 
mencement of the present century, and even later, houses of 
equal or greater antiquity, not to omit the old brick house 
built by Major Thomas Jones, at Massapequa, 1696, and re- 
moved 1835, — the property, at that time, of Hon. David S. 
Jones. At South Hampton and at East Hampton several very 
old houses are yet standing. 

A few quite ancient houses of worship are still to be found. 
The Presbyterian meeting-house at East Hampton ; the Caro- 
line Church at Setauket (the oldest Episcopal church on Long 
Island) ; and the Quaker meeting-house at Flushing — the oldest 
house of worship on Long Island, built 1690 — are the principal. 

The Long Island Historical Library is still limited. Its 
history and antiquities have, to be sure, been explored and 
discussed, compiled and commented upon, but not as they 
should be. A brief yet comprehensive, a classical but yet 



familiar, narrative remains to be written. Tliompson's vol- 
umes contain the materiel for a history, and disclose the sources 
for further research ; but they do not present history in the 
high and strict sense. Tliey include an ample store of facts, 
not philosophically digested, nor yet skillfully arranged. The 
compiler, as the historian always modestly calls himself, trans- 
ferred too many documents and records, valuable as evidence, 
or illustrative of the text, but burthensome to the reader. He 
is, perhaps, too, in his biographical sketches, which form a sort 
of Long Island family history (by far the most interesting por- 
tion of his work to all interested in the details), too much of a 
genealogist, and not enough of a biographer. AVith these ob- 
vious defects (and notwithstanding other defects of style and 
manner), full of matter as it undoubtedly is, and the work of 
an honorable man and zealous inquirer, it is thus far the best 
— the accredited history of Long Island. 

Wood's History of the settlement of the towns of Long 
Island, and Furman's Notes on Brooklyn, both of which tracts 
preceded it, are truly valuable sketches, careful in research 
and clear in style. Dr. Strong's History of Flatbush, Mr. 
Riker's History of Newtown, Judge Benson's Memoranda, and 
occasional historical sermons, afford useful materiel for local 
history. 

The earliest printed account of Long Island is to be found 
in Denton's Description of New York, of which Long Island 
was then the part best known and most compactly peopled, 
after the Island of Manhattan itself. It has been reprinted by 
Gowans, tlie well-known bibliopole of New York City, with in- 
teresting notes by Judge Furman. It is a quaint and curious 
description of the city and the Island, very literal and very 
bald as to style, written in a vein of remarkable naivete. The 
author of this pamphlet of twenty pages, published in 1670, 



was the son of the first clergyman of Hempstead, who came to 
this country 1644. It is a literary and historical curiosity. 

Dr. D wight, in his journal (a little prolix, yet generally 
sensible, and valuable as a faithful picture of manners at the 
beginning of this century — 1804), gives some pleasant descrip- 
tions of places and customs. Cobbett's Year on Long Island, 
as might be expected, is fresh and racy in point of style and 
sarcasm ; most readable for agricultural remarks and general 
observations on character and manners. He saw comparatively 
little of the Island ; chiefly the neighborhood of North Hemp- 
stead, where, at Hyde Park, the seat of the Ludlows, this book 
was written, 1817, as well as his English Grammar, the most 
popular work of its class ever published. 

The late Wm. P. Hawes, a lively writer and a genuine 
humorist, has left capital Long Island sketches — ^local, sporting, 
and familiar. His biographer, the late "Wm. Henry Herbert, 
the accomplished scholar, litterateur, and sportsman, has left, in 
Notes on Fishing to the American reprint of the Complete 
Angler, some pleasant references to Long Island, as well as in 
his larger works on fishing, shooting, and the horse. 

The Rev. Mr. Prime's compilation is chiefly important as 
an outline of the ecclesiastical history of Long Island, though 
it also presents the fruit of antiquarian reseach. This work is 
replete with important facts, and is drawn up with accuracy, 
in a compact form. 

Mr. Onderdonk's valuable book of cuttings, the " Incidents 
of the Revolution on Long Island," may be regarded as interest- 
ing MSS. for the future historian, if indeed that classical 
scholar and loving chronicler of the past does not himself per- 
form a duty to which he is fully competent — that of condensing 
his vivid facts and historical illustrations, running through 
three or four compact historical chapters, into a succinct nar- 
rative. 



9 



Mrs. Sigourney has essayed a poetical fligbt, we believe, off 
Montauk — a species of Spirit-of-tlie-cape episode — and with her 
we conclude the list of literary and historical illustrations of 
Long Island. From time to time newspaper correspondents 
send a letter up to town from their Summer retreats, but into 
this extensive class of literature we want both time and in- 
clination to enter. 

A topographical sketch of the Island will present a general 
picture — a bird's-eye view of a most interesting country. 

Suffolk County occupies nearly two-thirds of Long Island, 
the county of so-called " pine barrens " (1) and sand, yet abound- 
ing in rich " necks " on both sides of the Island and teeming 
trout streams. It is the county of the great patents of the 
Nicolls, the Smiths, the Gardiners, the Floyds, the Lawrences, 
the Thompsons, the Lloyds, and other leading families — estates 
equal in extent almost to some of the great old North River 
manorial grants ; as, for instance, the Nicoll patent of origi- 
nally nearly a hundred square miles ; Richard Smith's patent 
of 30,000 acres ; Fisher's Island ; Gardiner's Island ; Shelter 
Island ; Lloyd's Neck — the county containing the two greatest 
natural curiosities of Long Island, Ronkonkoma Pond and 
Montauk Point. Ronkonkoma is a lake three miles in circum- 
ference, with the peculiarity of a sand beach, although an in- 
land lake — itself the very Omphale of Long Island. For a long- 
while it was supposed to be unfathomable, because no plummet 
had sounded its depths — (in tliis respect similar to Success 
Pond and other sheets of water) — claimed in part by four 
towns, Smithtown, Setauket, Islip, and Patchogue. According 
to Judge Furman, the Indians refused to eat the fish of Ron- 
konkoma, regarding them as superior beings, placed there by 
the Great Spirit, like the enchanted lake of the Arabian 
Nights. 

Montauk, a vast common, as well as a bold promontory, 



10 



with its shining light, has its 9,000 acres, owned by a company, 
who hold its pasturing privileges as stock, and buy and sell it 
in shares. 

Suffolk has the healthiest air (2) on Long Island, especially 
in its extreme eastern portion. We speak from experience of 
frequent visits, of from weeks' to months' duration, some years 
since. More old persons, we believe, are to be found there than 
in any one county in the State — even if a fatal case of tetanus (3) 
and of chorea does occasionally occur. According to Prime, 
Suffolk, in 1846, could show one in forty of her population over 
seventy years of age. The father, we believe, of General Hal- 
leck, died lately, a centenarian. 

It was an old slander against Suffolk, that her people were 
a benighted race, because they preserved much of the primi- 
tive habits of the original settlers ; yet, if statistics are to be cred- 
ited, more of her population can read and write than that of 
any other county in the State. The very first academy in the 
State — Clinton Academy — was established at East Hampton 
1784-7, and since the commencement of the century she has 
had her fair proportion of schools and academies. 

She has another just boast — that of producing the hand- 
somest women of the State. On this point it would be invidi- 
ous to discriminate ; but, from personal observation, I can hon- 
estly declare that, if the wives and daughters of Kings and 
Queens are equally beautiful, they cannot be more amiable or 
intelligent. 

We cannot leave Suffolk without a few remarks on the 
whale fishery, forming its most characteristic feature. Whal- 
ing, from the earliest period of her annals, has been one of the 
chief sources of wealth to the hardy islanders ; and a bold, 
manly occupation for the inhabitants of the eastern end of the 
Island in particular. From some of the towns on the north 
side, and early settlements on the shore of the South Bay (on a 



11 



smaller scale), vessels have been from time to time dispatched ; 
but Sag Harbor may be properly recognized as tlie headquar- 
ters of the whaling enterprise of Long Island, — a port, too, 
ranking (after New Bedford and one or two other places), in 
former days, as one of the most important whaling stations 
in the country. For this hazardous business the Hamptons 
furnished both officers and men. Of late years, since the use 
of gas as a means of illumination, the whale fishery and oil 
trade have materially decreased. 

In contemplating the venturous toils incurred by the vigor- 
ous race of men nurtured in this manly pursuit, we are forci- 
bly reminded of Burke's vivid description of the hardy pioneers 
of the Kew England whale fishery as literally applicable to 
that of Long Island, with which in spirit, and, in a less degree, 
in extent, it is identical. After many, and dangerous, and 
profitable voyages, the daring navigator, and no less daring 
fisher, returns to his native place with a moderate independ- 
ence, revives in middle life the youthful occupations of the 
farmer, and settles down into the domestic character of a j^ater- 
familias. Originally a farmer's boy, a third of his life perhaps 
spent at sea, he never loses a certain amphibious character 
readily noticed in his dress and demeanor, his walk and talk, 
habits and feelings. A more kindly, intelligent, frank race of 
men cannot be found anywhere than the better portion (and 
that a prominent majority) of the sea-faring men of Suffolk 
County. Simple-hearted, but clear-headed, ingenious, indus- 
trious, and upright, they make excellent neighbors, true friends, 
and valuable citizens. Their mode of life is eminently repub- 
lican, almost universal social equality existing in their towns, 
based upon a pretty uniform equality of pecuniary condition 
and intellectual acquirement. The whale fishery is the most 
democratic of employments ; every man has his proportional 
share of profits, and a few voyages raise the competent sailor 



12 



and skillful hunter of the seas from the condition of an ordi- 
nary seaman to the post of captain. It is a pleasing sight, of 
a Sunday, to remark, at meeting, the number of truly respecta- 
ble, sometimes patriarchal, men, whose venerable locks are 
whitened by the frosts of many Winters, as their honest faces 
are embrowned by the salt air and a tropical sun. As we have 
said, they make good farmers, but never lose their nautical 
ideas. Thus, in ordinary speech, they never throw, but always 
lieave / a pail is always a })ucket ', the reins are lines ', they go 
east or \oest., instead of up or down a street ; they head or steer 
north or south, whether on foot or in a vehicle, as if on water; 
they love to live near the sea, to have plenty of sea-room and 
space about them — to go a-fishing and breathe their native 
air. 

The Hamptons are the towns where you find most of this 
race. J. Howard Payne, the dramatist, whose immortal song 
is as cosmopolitan as the English tongue, wrote, many years 
ago, an admirable description of East Hampton in one of the 
magazines. South Hampton is in much the same style, with 
its quaint old houses and their diminutive windows, their im- 
mense chimneys and massive timbers, its wide street, and 
wind-mill, and meeting-house. These are towns more than two 
centuries old, with something of Old England, and a great deal 
more of New England, in them. 

The names of places are often queer and outlandish, some- 
times significant, but often selected without any apparent good 
reason ; e. g.^ Hardscrabble (now Farmingdale), Hoppogues, 
Greenland, Mount Misery, Old Man's, Eum Point (Green- 
wich) — the scene of Dr. Valentine's richly farcical description 
of a fete) — Commock, Buckram, Wolver Hollow, Canoe Place, 
Good Ground, Bedlam, Drowned Meadow, Fire Place and 
Fire Island, Scuttle-hole, Wamstead, North Sea, Speonk, 
Moriches, Mastic, Crab Meadow, Cow Neck, Cow Bay, Mus- 



13 



quito (Glen) Cove, Plandome, Dosoris, Bating Hollow, Qiioque, 
Wading Eiver, Hashmommock, Flanders, Upper Aquebogue 
or High Hockabock, Most of these are in Suffolk. A few 
scripture names occur in Queens and Suffolk ; e. g.^ Jerusa- 
lem, Jericho, Babylon, Bethpage, Mount Sinai. 

The English settlements were chiefly in Suffolk and Queens 
during the civil war and the Protectorate, as the names of 
places show — Hampton, Huntington, Hempstead, Islip,Graves- 
end, for example. 

The Dutch settlements were almost wholly in Kings, ad- 
jacent to the city of New Amsterdam, as names of places there 
evince — Breuklyn, Midwout (Flatbush), Araersfort (Flatlands), 
New Utrecht, Gowanus. The English settled but one town in 
Kings — Gravesend. In Queens, the Dutch also settled Vlis- 
sengen (Flushing), in 1645, and Rusdorp (Jamaica), but went 
no further east than Oyster Bay. 

The national characteristics are still preserved, in some re- 
spects, and to this day the towns of Kings retain something of 
the aspect of Holland, and a great deal of her thrift and quiet 
industry ; while East Hampton, in particular, has a good deal 
of the air of an old English village. In fact, except in New 
England, there are few or no places in our country resembling 
the old-fashioned English villages of a past date (of which we 
read in the English classics of the eighteenth century — neat and 
comfortable, pretty and picturesque), save, in a comparatively 
slight degree, some of the oldest villages on Long Island, where 
time and cultivation, the presence of gentry and the possession 
of wealth, have done a good deal to refine tlie face of the 
country as well as the manners of the people. 

The distinguishing features of Queens County are the strait 
at Hell Gate, immortalized by the classic description of 
Irving ; Hempstead Plains ; and the Great South Bay,— the 
last entrenched behind a great bar or beach, nearly 100 miles 



14 



long, a natural breakwater and sure barrier against the fury of 
the Ocean, forming a bay five miles wide ; while the second, a 
species of prairie and heath combined, includes some 25,000 
acres of uncultivated ground, without a tree growing natur- 
ally upon it, forming a common for the town. It is twelve 
miles long, by five or six in width. Long previous to the Rev- 
olution, in early colonial times, a race-course, called after the 
celebrated (English) Newmarket, was established here, by Gov. 
Nicolls, 1665 — nearly two centuries ago. It is thus described 
by Denton : " Towards the middle of Long Island lyeth a plain 
sixteen miles long by four broad, upon which plain grows very 
fine grass, that makes exceeding good hay, and is very good 
pasture for sheep and other cattel ; where you shall find neither 
stick nor stone to hinder the horses nor to endanger them or 
their races ; and once a year the best horses on the Island are 
brought hither, and the swiftest rewarded with a silver cup — 
two being annually procured for that purpose." Hence the 
origin of racing on Long Island — a favorite sport, especially at 
the Union Course, within the memory of most of us rendered 
classic by the historical contests between Eclipse and Henry ; 
and, still later, between Boston and Fashion, — the North always 
victorious. The last great race was between Fashion and Blue 
Dick, — a most exciting scene, which we had the pleasure of wit- 
nessing. Trotting and trotters now appear to have superseded, 
in a great measure, racing and racers. 

The shore of the East River, from Ravenswood to Flushing, 
famous for its gardens and schools (the nurseries of education), 
especially at and in the neighborhood of Astoria, and also at 
Newtown (celebrated for its orchards), and Jamaica, in the in- 
terior, is thickly set with delightful country places and rural re- 
treats, in some instances of retired merchants and professional 
men, but, in most cases, of active business men engaged during 
the day in town. 



15 



The north side of the Island, especially at Oyster Bay and 
Cold Spring, and indeed throughout its whole length, is cer- 
tainly superior in natural beauty and picturesque scenery ; but 
the south side has the advantage of fine roads, being remarka- 
bly level, and is far richer in all kinds of game, fish, and fowl. 
Dr. DeKay's List of the Birds of Long Island shows that she 
is uncommonly rich in this particular. 

The highest ground on Long Island is Harbor Hill, 
319 feet above the sea, at Hempstead Harbor, now 
Roslyn — a romantic spot, the Summer abode of Bryant, P. 
Godwin, and Mrs. Kirkland. At the same place was the first 
paper-mill in the State, erected and managed by a member of 
the Onderdonk family, which has given two bishops to the 
church and many worthy members to society. On both sides, 
the sound (her Mediterranean) and the Ocean, the Island is 
rich in watering places ; and after Newport, and superior to all 
of the !New Jersey resorts for salt bathing, comes Rockaway, 
which is followed in an inferior degree by Coney Island, Bath, 
and a number of other places, to the very land's-end of the 
Island, at Montauk. As a fashionable resort, Rockaway, of 
course, stands at the head of the list, and is very accessible 
to the denizens of the city ; but old Ocean is to be seen in liis 
more primitive aspects, with none of the artificial accomj)ani- 
ments of great hotels or brilliant society, with a ruder beach 
and a rougher surf, at the Hamptons and Montauk, and along 
the less visited shores of Suffolk County. 

Kings County, in its rural portion, retains a good deal of 
the old Dutch character of the early settlers (Gravesend being 
the only English settlement). Flatbush is the chief village — a 
quiet, clean, most comfortable-looking place, with its pleasant 
houses, and gardens, and farms. Erasmus Hall, established 
contemporaneously with East Hampton Academy, bears wit- 



16 



ness to its Belgic origin, immortalized by President Duer in 
liis interesting St. Nicholas Address, 1848. 

Coney Island is supposed to liave been the first landing- 
place of Hudson and his men, 1609. 

Forts Hamilton and La Fayette are most respectable forti- 
fications, and important to the safety of New York City. 

Brooklyn deserves a lecture, or a volume, rather, to herself, 
in place of a paragraph — the rival or rather the suburb of New 
York. This is said with no idea of disrespect to her ; as, though 
a dependency on New York, much of the city of Brooklyn is 
very far superior to very much of the city of New York ; — 
with her numerous places of religious worship, some of them 
of very considerable architectural pretensions ; with her many 
fine streets of elegant, and, in very many instances, magnifi- 
cent, private residences; her noble City Hall, and Navy Yard, 
with its admirable dry-dock, and, crowning feature of all, with 
her beautiful Greenwood Cemetery, a peerless place of public 
sepulture. 

We believe all of the antiquities of Brooklyn are gone. 
Duflon's Military Garden and Parmentier's Botanical Garden 
were great places of resort in my boyhood, but have made way 
for the city improvements. • 

Long Island may justly boast of the eminent jurists and 
statesmen she has produced, and equally of the distinguished 
advocates who have, by residence, naturalized themselves, as it 
were — become adopted citizens of her insular republic. 

Samuel Clowes, an Englishman, is commonly reported the 
first lawyer settled upon Long Island, at Jamaica, 1702. His 
grave is to be seen in the burial-ground of the Episcopal 
church. His descendants are among the most respectable of 
the many respectable old Long-Island families. 

Jamaica appears to have been either the birthplace or 
favorite retreat of gentlemen of the first rank, either in the 



17 



lciji,'al prolcssiun or in tlic political worl<l, ainoii:;' whom may 
1)0 mentioned Benjamin Kissam, Egbert Benson, Rufus King, 
Melanctlion Smith ; Genet, the French minister sent from the 
Rcpnhlic hy the Directory, 1793. Newtown claims the well- 
known legal Hiker family ; Flushing, the able Cadwallader D. 
Golden (whose father, Governor Cadw^allader Golden, had an 
elegant country seat at Spring Hill, near Flushing ; as had 
Francis Lewis, the Signer, at Whitestone). DeWitt Glinton, 
too, enjoyed his rural leisure, at one period of his life, at his 
pleasant place at Maspeth, in the town of Newtown. South 
Oj'ster Bay has given birth to perhaps the oldest and most dis- 
tinguished legal family of the State, — including, in four gener- 
ations of able lawyers, two judges of the Supreme Gourt of 
the colony ; and, since the Revolution, the two Samuel 
Joneses, father and son, at different epochs the patriarchs of 
the New York bar ; and a younger brother of the latter, a 
worthy and generous compeer of the b'est, well known to many 
of you as such, and whose name and fame are gratefully cher- 
ished in the history of his native county. The celebrated 
Judge Radcliff was a resident of Brooklyn ; and the eminent 
advocate, Elisha W. King, neither a native nor a resident, 3'et 
a descendant, of a Long-Island family, should not be forgotten. 
Perhaps no part of the State can pride herself with more jus- 
tice on her able lawyers, of whom we have mentioned only 
those of the first class. To this brief catalogue should, in jus- 
tice, be added the names of two of the worthiest of the sons 
of Long Island,- the admirable brothers Sackett, than whom 
we have never known purer or more honorable characters. 
They were able and intelligent lawyers, high-2)rinci])led and 
kindly men, liberal and accomplished gentlemen, filled with 
all the virtues of the manly character ; devoted to duty and 
to each other in life, and not separated in death — a rare ex- 
ample of brotherly love and of genuine goodness. As con- 
2 



18 



nectcd, too, with the old and respectable families of Onder- 
donk, Titus, Kissam, and Tredwell ; and united, by the ties of 
birth, and long residence, and partial aifection ; by political 
bias and professional pursuits, their names should never be 
omitted in a list of those of whom this community ought to be 
proud. 

Suffolk, too, has produced her liberal proportion of able 
lawyers and statesmen. Is it necessary to do more tlian re- 
capitulate the names of "Wm. Floyd, the Signer ; Mr. Stephen 
Sayre, a native of Southampton — in 1773, Sheriff of London 
— an elegant gentleman and sincere patriot ; Judge Conckling ; 
Cliancellor Sandford ; Silvanus Miller; Taj^pan Reeve, of 
whom Dr. Beecher remarked, in his funeral sermon, " I have 
never known a man who loved so mau}^, and was by so many 
beloved ;" and John Wickham ? We must pause, in this rapid 
enumeration, at this last name, better known at the South, ])er- 
iiaps, tlian in his own county. Mr. Wickham, of Southold, 
v/ent, early in life, to Virginia, where he became endenizened, 
and made for himself a most enviable legal and social reputa- 
tion, lie is best known in legal, or rather jiolitical, history, 
for his defence of Aaron Burr in the celebrated trial for trea- 
son, and in which he had the elegant, classic Wirt opposed to 
him. John Randolph, that acute judge of men, has left his 
weighty testimony to the worth and merits of our great Long- 
Islander. In his will, dated January 1, 1832, he bequeaths 
"to John Wickham, Esq., my best friend, without making 
any professions of friendship to me, and the best and wisest 
man I ever knew, except Mr. Macon, my mare Flora and my 
stallion Gascoine, together with two old-fashioned silver tank- 
ards, unengraved ; and I desire that he will have his arms en- 
graved upon them, and at the l)ottoin these words: 'From 
John Randolph, of Roanoke, to John Wickham, Esq., a token 
of the respect and gratitude which he never ceased to feel for 



19 



his unparalleled kindness, courtesy, and services.' " One of 
Mr. Wickhani'S daughters married Mr. 15enj. Watkins Leigh, 
one of the political worthies of the Old Dominion. Mr. 
Wickhani took a Virginian's and a Long-Tslander's pride in the 
horse, and he had a heavy stake in the Eclipse and Henry 
race. Boston, the greatest Southern racer since Henry, was 
bred by Mr. Wickham, 

Well-known and popular names of an hiforior professional 
grade might be added ; we have enumerated only the fore- 
most, and of these none now living. If we have omitted any 
name or names at all equal to the foregoing, it is wholly 
through inadvertence, and by no means from design. 

The faculty is as well, if not as numerously, represented. 
There was the celebrated Dr. Mitohell, immortalized by Hal- 
leck, whom the late Dr. Francis, and equally competent 
judges among his contemporaries, were never tired of praising 
for his learning, his simplicity of character, his benevolence, 
and his eccentricities ; of wliom Cobbett wrote, "A man more 
full of knowledge and less conscious of it, I never saw in my 
life ;" the able Wrujht Post ; Valentme Seaman., father of the 
great doctors of the past generation, of whom we find mention 
in a foot-note of Fcrriar's Illustrations of Sterne, to tlie effect 
that " the practice of whipping in medicine was revived by 
Dr. Seaman in North America, who applied a horse-whip to a 
patient who had taken an overdose of oi^ium. The method 
succeeded." Valentine Mott — one of his pupils — the peer of 
Liston, and C<5oper, and Dupuytren, and confessedly the first 
surgeon of his age and country ; Dr, Moore., of Newtown ; 
John Jones, one of the founders of the New York Hospital, 
and of the medical faculty of Columbia (King's) College, 
"ever to be remembered," to quote the language of Dr. 
Francis, " as the physician of Franklin and the surgeon of 
Washington," the ablest operator and professional writer of 



20 



his day. These were all natives of Long Island. Dr. Kissani, 
and Dr. 0<jden^ who is said to have been the first practitioner 
of his day, who introduced the use of mercury as a specific, 
became residents of Jamaica. Dr. DeKay., more particularly 
eminent as a man of science and traveler, located himself near 
the delightful village of Oyster Bay. 

The Episcopal church has at different times stationed some 
of her ablest sons on Long Island. Four, among the very fore- 
most of our bishops, had parochial charges here at different 
times — Seabury, Benj. Moore, Ilobart, and B. T. Onderdonk. 
Bishop Moore and Bishop Onderdonk (of New York) were 
natives. 

Four successive generations of the first honored name have 
had charges on Long Island. Samuel Seabury, father of the 
bishop, was rector of St. George's, Hempstead, and after him 
succeeded in the same parish Rev, Lambert Moore, then Mr. 
(afterwards Bishop) Ilobart. At Jamaica, Bishop (then, too, 
Mr.) Seabury was settled for twenty years. His son, the Rev. 
Charles Seabury, a clergyman of the Vicar of Wakefield and 
Parson Adams stamp, was missionary at Setauket (the Caro- 
line Church) for many years ; and his son again, the Rev, Dr. 
Seabury, of New York, certainly the ablest polemic, and one 
of the most eminent divines of the Episcopal church, was rec- 
tor, for a year, of St. George's Cliurch, Astoria. Four gener- 
ations of clergymen, all able, and two pre-eminently so, are 
not readily to be paralleled. 

Celebrated preachers of various denominations have made 
Long Island the favorite scene of their religious labors. 

Elias Hicks, a native of Jerico, the Unitarian Quaker (if 
the phrase be not tautological), in his peregrinations, is said to 
have traveled 10,000 miles and to have delivered 1,000 dis- 
courses. In 1672, George Fox, the rural patriarch of Quaker- 
ism (Penn was the courtier of the society), visited Long Island 



21 



and preached under the nohlc okl trees at Fhishing, near the 
Bowne House, where lie lodged. Whitlield, one of the two 
great Methodist leaders, also made an ecclesiastical tour, 1704, 
at the east end of the Island. Traditions abound in Suffolk, 
especially in the most eastern towns, of the cj^uaint peculiarities 
of the early Presbyterian clergy, a vigorous race of intellec- 
tual, humorous, and most devoted pastors. The old Dutch 
Church in Kings, too, has her peculiar history. 

In the naval and military glories of the country Long- 
Island may claim to participate : in Commodore Truxton (of 
Jamaica), the gallant sailor and true man ; in the lamented 
Gen. Woodhull (of Mastic) ; and the spirited Col. Benj. Bird- 
sail (of Hempstead) ; Col. Tallmadge (of Setauket) ; General 
Ebenezer Stevens (of Astoria), Capt. Norton (of Brookhaven), 
and Capt. Brewster, revolutionary heroes, are not to be for- 
gotten. 

Art, too, can point to her votaries, some of them natives, 
others residents, of Long Island. Mount^ the first comic pain- 
ter of the United States, and his brother Shepherd, the por- 
trait painter, natives of Setauket ; and a new name, Davis, 
of Port Jefferson, rapidly becoming the peer of Mount ; 
Rogers, the celebrated miniature painter, of Bridge-Hampton. 
Hackett, the excellent comedian, is, we believe, a native of 
Jamaica; and Dr. Valentine, the admirable comic lecturer 
and mimic. Byram, the self-taught mechanical genius, was a 
native of Southampton ; and Symmes (of Riverhead), author 
of the well-known theory of the earth. We recollect the 
name of but one brilliant instance of native authorship among 
the dead — Robert C. Sands, the scholar and wit. Brooklyn 
has always had her fair share of litterateurs and a highly cul- 
tivated society, most of which belongs properly to New York 
City, or to New England, or to the native and resident mem- 
bers of the legal profession. 



22 



The population of Long Island is equal to that of Bome of 
our largest cities, or some of the smaller States of the Union. 
On this score alone she might claim to become an independent 
State and a distinct diocese, to have her own governor and her 
own bishop. But would it be wise to separate herself from 
the parent State (if, indeed, such a course could be allowed), 
to forego the glory of remaining a most important portion of 
the Empire State, and, instead, to set up a jjolitical independ- 
ency of her own ? As the son, the grandson and the great 
grandson of Long-Islanders, wliose first American ancestor 
was among the early English patentees of Queens County, I 
say, for myself, distinctly, it would not. 

The future of Long Island appears to us (so far as we may 
cast its horoscope) to resolve itself into becoming the garden, 
the orchard and the farm of New York City. Assuming 
Brooklyn (though the third city of the United States for popu- 
lation), with her dependencies, to be considered as a part of 
the metropolis; the rnral portion of Kings miglit fitly be 
formed into gardens, kitchen and floral ; wiiile Queens might 
be in part devoted to both gardens and orchards (as is even at 
present, with both counties, much tlie case), and leaving the 
rest of her soil, with much that is excellent in tlie soil of Suf- 
folk, for purely agricultural purposes, and farming on a large 
scale. Or, admitting secession (which we are as unwilling to 
countenance in this instance as in the disruption of our glo- 
rious Union), Long Island may virtually become an insular 
State with far better reason than some of tlie Southern States, 
— Delaware, for instance. From geographical position, her 
internal resources, her varied products, the possession of a 
capital city worthy of the name, she might derive a strong 
ground for separation. Interest and good feeling would still 
ally her strongly to New York, and the divorce might be but 
partial. This, however, we merely glance at as a speculation ; 



23 



fervently tnisting tluat no sncli consummation may ever hap- 
pen, but that Long Island will hereafter be known as the 
richest jewel in the crown of the Empire State, and that her 
sons and daughters may, while indulging in a most laudable 
local pride, not only never forget, but boast with proud satis- 
faction, that they arc loyal citizens of the Empire State of 
New York. 



Note. — The writer of tlie present paper is indebted to Mr. J. W. Carrington, 
wlio kindly read it, in liis absence, to the Long Island Historical Society ; and 
from whose admirable elocution much of its immediate success was derived, for 
the following judicious remarks: 

(1) These so-called "barrens," by the way, are being rapidly developed, year 
by year, into tlirifty, promising farms. 

The " Bushii Oak Plains" — {not f^crnb Oak, as they are generally called) in a 
pamphlet by Winslow C Watson, among the State Agricultural Transactions for 
1859 — are shown to be anything but "barrens." They would fit out niiiny a 
baron with a most noble barony. 

(2) It might be added, too, that Suffolk County lies wholly within that very 
small portion of the earth's surface described by Baron Humboldt (in his " (Cos- 
mos," I think) as being emphatically the healthiest region in the world. 

(3) It is but just to Suffolk County to say, here, that one of her own phj-sicians 
has robbed her of this terror. Under the treatment discovered and introduced 
by Dr. Benjamin D. Carpenter, of Cutchogue, tetanus is of scarcely more conse- 
quence than a severe attack of toothache. Practicing in a circuit of twent^'-five 
miles in diameter, he assures me that in sixteen years' residence he has only 
averaged one case a year ; and of cases that were his own, he has not lost one. 









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